The annual Hot Chocolate Festival returns in August with an exciting new range of delicious daring creations to enjoy!

Staged by Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and the Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie, the Hot Chocolate Festival takes the classic chocolate and milk combination to amazing new heights with 31 limited edition flavours over 31 days.

Lovers of hot chocolate who brave the cold and venture to the Yarra Valley or down the surf coast to Bells Beach will be rewarded with a revolving menu of eight different hot chocolate creations served each week of August. There will also be Hot Chocolate Tasting Sessions and the chance to win one's body weight in chocolate, simply by voting for your favourite winter warming flavour.

The French and Belgian Chocolatiers at Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and the Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie have crafted 31 creative hot chocolate flavours starting from a couverture chocolate base and adding seasonal and exotic ingredients, fresh herbs from their kitchen gardens and inspiration from local surrounds. Temptations such as Jiminy Cricket, Pink Musk, Tim Tam Slam, Bohemian Raspberry, Drunken Sailor and Oompa Loompa are part of this year's decadent line up.

You can also get adventurous and interactive with elements such as edible bugs, exploding choc balls, melting chocolate discs, chocolate maracas and even edible drinking cups.

All the 'limited edition' hot chocolates will be served with an extra shot of milk, dark or white melted couverture and of course, the ultimate accompaniment - a giant handcrafted marshmallow.

Bookings for special Tasting Sessions on offer throughout the month-long festival are already a hot ticket. For $20 per person, visitors can sip and savour eight different hot chocolate flavours, then get hands-on creating three 'hot chocolate spoons' from 50 different ingredients, to take home and whisk into hot milk for their very own decadent drink.